A step ahead of the dancer?
SWAPNASUNDARI
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If you think dancers dominate the stage, think again. It is actually the accompanists who call the shots.
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STAGE SUPPORT Accompanists are as important as the main performers.
An aspiring dancer's life is fraught with difficulties. These include lack of sustained sponsorship, dealing with accompanying musicians and managing performance-related arrangements. To deal with these, debutants avail the help of the guru, institution and parents, etc. Those wishing to break free of such apron strings and make a transition into independent entities often face many such harrowing experiences that lots of them leave the field. Take for instance, this interaction between a dancer and dance accompanist.
"Hello sir, this is Kamini calling, disciple of ... ... Could you provide mridangam accompaniment for my performance in Bangalore next month?"
"Bangalore? An entire week of my time! Hmm... let's see."
"Sir, please, I would be so confident if you could play for me ... "
"Ok. What will you pay?"
"As a young dancer I cannot offer much. Please tell me your minimum expectation."
"I charge Rs... ... ... ..for a performance. Extra for every rehearsal."
"But that is my entire budget for three musicians! Can I request you to charge a little less? I would separately meet your rehearsal expense."
Laughs... "Kamini! What you are quoting does not meet even my local performance fee."
The disheartened dancer looks for an alternative. Curiously, other mridangists seem to have advance knowledge of her predicament. Their quotations rise as does her desperation level. Forced to return, she ends up paying an astronomical sum to the first mridangist, including accompaniment and rehearsal fees, air-conditioned travel, food expenses and perhaps even the porter charges for his professional and personal luggage. But more surprises are in store. Just before the performance, another accompanist calls. "Kamini, this is xxxx... . I want that, in the performance, my name should be announced first, before everyone else's."
"Sir, I will try and tell the organisers." No, no, you must ensure this happens "
He suggests that he would not "cooperate" with her in future and would even consider pulling out if his wish were not granted.
Interestingly, the term "cooperation" is used by dance accompanists to describe what is actually a professional work for providing musical accompaniment. Perhaps it reflects a carry over of an earlier mindset when musicians considered it infra dig to accompany female dancers and singers who belonged to the so called nautch girl community which was at once admired and derided by the then prevalent society. Yet these musicians would play with the girls when well compensated.
Supplementary activities
Many dance accompanists of today aspire for recognition as musicians with a solo status. Some succeed. Except for highly established musicians, solo concerts are not financially rewarding. Therefore many musicians continue earning through regular jobs and by tuitions and dance accompaniment. Regardless of what they say in public, musicians see these supplementary activities as being forced upon them by circumstances. By using the term co-operation with a dancer, a state of continuing negotiation is suggested within which, the possibility of their withdrawal is implicit. As the demand for dance accompanists outstrips the supply, it is the dancer who is rendered vulnerable in the state of this so-called cooperation. It would appear that the dance-musician is no longer an accompanist but rather the one who leads by holding a gun to the dancer.
Notwithstanding the statements made by dance-musicians, their cooperation depends on the lucrative nature of offers and is rarely related to factors such as a dancer's artistic capability, level of experience or the degree of renown. The main issue is one of hierarchy. The musicians' perception of themselves and the dancers they accompany is revealed by the fact that, in spite of charging hefty sums through cooperation with dancers, their real desire is for the attention and central positioning available to soloists.
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